This invention relates to a device for attaching a trapeze-anchoring structure to a hospital bed, and more particularly, to a clamping device to allow the trapeze-anchoring structure or other similar structure to be clamped onto the bedboard of the bed.
In adjusting trapeze clamping structures to hospital beds, to allow the patients to maintain some exercise activity while still confined to the bed, it is very often the case that two or even three attendants are required to control all of the pieces. The trapeze structure is both long and awkward, and because it extends out over the mattress from the headboard, it causes pressure to bear on the top part of the fixture that is used to clamp the structure to the headboard. A common way of tightening the clamping fixture onto the headboard is to use a clamping arrangement wherein a bolt is tightened on a nut thereby clamping the headboard and securing the anchoring-structure. This oftentimes involves laborious rotating of the bolt inside the clamp in one direction to clear the headboard, and then laborious rotating of the bolt in the opposite direction to engage the work and tighten the clamp. All of these movements consume considerable time and effort and make it very inconvenient at certain times to attempt to adjust the trapeze on the headboard.
One such example of this type of device is in U.S. Pat. No. 3,077,613 to E. H. Mayer. That invention shows a boom extending from a swivel post which in turn is clamped to the top of the headboard by a pair of helical screw C-clamps and fixed by a single C-clamp to the bottom of the headboard.
Another device used to attach objects to a headboard of a hospital bed is shown in the U.S. Pat. No. 2,607,881 to J. M. Anderson. This invention has a clamping device which fits over the rail of the headboard. It has a pair of oppositely disposed arms extending from the top rail, which are held together by a pair of helical thumb screws. Devices of this nature are awkward to work with since the thumb screws must be rotated all the way back to allow open space for the clamping device to fit over the headrail, and then rotated all the way close to secure the device upon the headboard.